Are all online students created equally?
I've spent the better part of the last month trying to figure out where hybrid courses fit into my schools. Will they work at the high school level? Why or why not? Wouldn't a hybrid be a perfect fit for an elementary GT course. Most of the research out there points to the fact that these initiatives would be difficult because these students are not all 'self-directed.' I told you that in order to tell you this: Maybe it isn't the students who have the problem. Maybe it is the way in which the material is presented. The University of Central Florida offers a tremendous amount of information about blended (Hybrid) courses. I found their presentation on Blended Learning and Generations particularly interesting (http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/%7Erite/Presentations/Online%20blended%20generations%20presentation.ppt) If you look carefully at how many of our hybrid courses are constructed they seem to be targeting generation X. Millenials wouldn't be interested in constructed learning. They would have very little experience with traditional classroom methods so why attempt to emulate them? Pundits would argue that this isn't preparing student's for the real world. I wonder we Gen Xers realize that it isn't our world they need to fit into anymore?
posted by Dallas Becker @ 9:31 PM
4 Comments:
At my age, I often find myself asking the same question. It may be dangerous to assume students see the world the same way I did when I was their age. While keeping younger students on task may take some creativity in how one structures a course, it is interesting to note how using a computer to learn is second nature to my daughter because she has been around them most of her life.
Not to date myself, but I remember how excited I was to get an IBM selectric typewriter in college. You mean I can actually erase a letter if I make a mistake? What a boon to productivity! I learn a lot just watching how my daughter uses her computer (POS - parent over shoulder). I'll talk to my daughter about online learning and I wouldn't be surprised if she challenges some of my preconcieved notions regarding young people and their ability to be self-directed in an online environment.
Thank you for the awesome link to the Florida PowerPoint regarding blended learning. I had not seen this one so I saved it in my favorites folder for hybrid courses.
I was interested in your ideas about how hybrids will work at the high school or elementary GT level. I have two daughters at home: one is a senior and one is a second-grader in GT. Believe or not, right here in Blackfoot, Idaho, our second grader is enrolled in a hybrid GT course. She completes assignments every week and checks out links and websites from here teacher's classroom site. She is learning great skills at a young age about this distance learning experience. The class meets once a week in a traditional face-to-face setting and then they do these online assignments. She has even inherited an old laptop that has a wireless card and she has here own laptop. Of course she can only go to her class site and a the disney page, and only when I am present. I don't her stumbling onto some terrible website by mistake. It makes me wonder what this generation will be doing as adults. Technology is amazing!
Wow! Very interesting presentation from Sloan-C. I hadn't heard the term millenials used before, I was fascinated to see the data behind the breakout of the generations and their perceptions about technology use.
You state that many of our hybrid courses are constructed for Generation X. How so? And how would we best design a hybrid course for Millenials, as you see it? Great stuff, thanks Dallas!
Thanks for writing upon an important issue of online learning. Every student needs specific strategies to learn fast. So, it is must to identify the specific interest of student in learning practices like writing, hearing, viewing, group activities or creativity etc. first and then to develop the teaching approach. To know more about this aspect, http://tutorskingdom.com/ too may be a good source.
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